Are we too professional?

Alexis pointed me to an interesting article in the magazine "Intelligent Life", a publication of The Economist. An ex cricket player (the game that only people from the British Commonwealth understand) writes about the importance of remaining true to the "game" and not focusing too much on the "winning". If winning and efficiency is all we care about (the goal of being "professional") this may actually dampen our inspiration and motivation to play, not enhance it. This is a thought that can also be applied to other areas of life, as the author, Ed Smith explains. Some of us scientists might recognize a similar theme when listening to the gospel of Science and Nature publications, which appear to be the ultimate goal for many of us these days. The question is, does this type of motivation produce better science. But what would a former cricketer know about science anyway!